Editor’s Note: Ole Miss was contacted about a comment on the hiring of Werner but said they were not prepared to release anything at this time.

By Myra Bean

Coach Dan Werner resigned yesterday as head coach of the North Delta football team to take a position on the football staff at Ole Miss under head coach Hugh Freeze as quarterback coach/co-offensive coordinator.

Werner worked with Freeze under Ed Orgeron as offensive coordinator and then went to become offensive coordinator at Northwestern State University in Natchitpches, La. His wife Kim died before he put much time in the position and he returned to Oxford to raise his two children.

He was chosen to take over the North Delta program in 2009. In those three years, he has coached the team to back-to-back district championships with a combined 27-7 overall, 11-1 district record.

Werner said when Freeze took the head coaching position, they talked.

“We had to make sure that it was the right fit for my family and for the staff,” Werner said. “It took awhile, but we felt this is the best for him and for me and my family.”

“It has been an honor to work with him for the past three seasons,” said North Delta headmaster John Howell Jr. “Coach Werner is a great football coach and a man of rare depth and integrity. He not only leaves our football program in great shape for his successor, but he also leaves a legacy of poise and professionalism that has benefited all of us at North Delta. The North Delta family wishes him and his family success and joy.”

This was a difficult decision, according to Werner. He wanted the Green Wave nation and the Batesville community to know it was not made lightly.

“I believe I was sent here for a reason,” Werner said. “The people in Batesville and at North Delta are as good as any I could wish for. My time there made me a better parent and a better person.”